Geocaching

So, in my endeavor to follow the Weight Watcher plan, I was searching for ways to earn activity points.  I like to read fellow WWer's blogs to see what they are doing that works and ideas they have that I might be able to implement to help me in my success.  So, a woman wrote a blog about geocaching.  She talked about how she had finally found a way to earn activity points that she enjoyed and that she could involve her kids.  Now, I had heard of geocaching before, but had never really looked into it.  I kind of thought it was something only naturists did, that like to go camping and hiking, etc, etc.  Well, after reading this blog, I thought, why not give it a shot?  So I put it on my list of 12 Things To Do In 2012 and we made a plan to give it a try.

If you are like anyone in my family, you may have no idea what geocaching is and have never even heard of it.  Well, geocaching is "a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location."  Its not "treasure" as you would normally describe it.  Its usually a container of some sort that contains a log book, information about geocaching, and sometimes some little trinkets.  You are usually welcome to take something from the container as long as you leave something of equal or greater value in its place.

To start our quest, I downloaded a Geocaching app for my iPhone.  The one that I used works directly with www.geocaching.com.  They offered a free app to try it out - it allows you to find three geocaches that are near your location.  Once you find those three, you can't use it again.  The full app costs $9.99 and gives you access to thousands of caches hidden all over the place.  It not only allows you to find the coordinates for the cache, but you can log when you find it and see what others said about their search to find it.  Using your iPhone makes it easier because your GPS locator basically leads you to the general area to within a couple of feet (depending on how close the cache is to the original hiding place).  Each cache is also graded (out of 5 stars) based on difficulty and terrain.  You can also see what size the cache is, such as "normal size" (like the size of a plastic shoe box container) or "micro" (like an old plastic film canister).

The first weekend we did it, the whole family (Vince, me, Ally, Cam, and Jake) all set out with the goal to find three caches.  We decided that each kid would be responsible for leading us to one cache.  Cameron did the first one, which was a great starter cache that we found in Utica Park.  Ally led us to the second one, which was definitely much harder.  It was called Castle Rock and it was located up past the Water Shed (which is right near our house).  It was a 3.5 star for terrain and we ended up hiking straight up for about half a mile.  But this was a great chance for some stellar photos!  And the weather was perfect too!  Cold, but not too cold at all.  Once we got near ground zero, there were tons of rocks for us to climb on, which also made great opportunities for photo shots.

Vince found this little hole in the rocks...which he almost didn't fit through...but once he did, everyone had to follow suit!









And of course, Ally never misses a photo op!

The last cache was Jake's and we found it just off of Rt. 15 near the future home of the Veteran's Memorial.  This one was much easier, and we were grateful for something a little easier after our second one!

Jake, Ally, and Cam with our found cache!

I was amazed at how entertained the kids were...even though they really weren't finding real treasure.  I was afraid this might be a big disappointment for them.  But even with a half mile hike straight up, they didn't complain once!  I did most of the complaining and it was because I couldn't breathe!  Lol.  The boys were so excited to find the cache, that we often had to tell them to slow down so that we could keep up with them!  

Jake and I did try to go out again last weekend, but we didn't have much luck.  The first cache was a tougher one, and although we got some pics...we didn't find the cache.  :-(

 
We tried one more, but should have read the logs first because it appears to no longer be there as the last four or five attempts by other searchers were unsuccessful as well.  After that, we really had to throw in the towel, because it started snowing.

Ally really wanted to go again this weekend while they were were us, but again, it was snowing, so no such luck.  Good news is that it seems like it is something the whole family enjoys and the even better news is that it gets us all out of the house and MOVING!  Excellent!  And the first weekend we did it, I earned about 20 activity points in ONE DAY!  I definitely would say "Geocaching....FTW!"